29th Aug. '15 ... The garden borders ...

Soaking traps this morning but a few good moths to report in amongst the sea of brown.
First up, a Bordered Beauty.
New for the garden, also a life-time first ...

BF 1907 - Bordered Beauty - Epione repandaria

Next, a Bordered Straw.
Only the second record for the garden, both this year.
2015 has been a big year for this continental migrant ...

BF 2403 - Bordered Straw - Heliothis peltigera

Also a year first, and very worn, Tawny Speckled Pug ...

BF 1838 - Tawny Speckled Pug - Eupithecia icterata

Loads of Large Yellow Underwings, Lesser Yellow Underwings, Setaceous Hebrew Characters, Square-spot Rustics, Vine's Rustics, Turnip Moths, Flounced Rustics, with a smattering of Common Rustics, Broad-bordered and Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwings, Pale Mottled Willows, Straw Underwings, Copper Underwings ... collectively known as "brown stuff" at the end of summer.
The brighter stuff included:-
Orange Swift by the kilo
2 x Light Emerald
3 x Angle Shades
1 x Burnished Brass
2 x Lychnis
3 x Silver Y
1 x Iron Prominent
1 x Green Carpet
4 x Marbled Beauty
7 x Willow Beauty
2 x Flame Shoulder
5 x Brimstone
4 x Garden Carpet
2 x Yellow Shell
2 x Common Wainscot
2 x White-point
Not many micro moths were seen apart from the usual common species ie. Light Brown Apple Moths, Codling Moths, Common Plumes, a myriad of the grass moth Agriphila geniculea.
Scythropia crataegella, the Hawthorn Moth
Pandemis corylana, Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
Mother of Pearl, Pleuroptya ruralis
Cameraria ohridella, Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner
Skin Moth, Monopis laevigella
2 x Argyrotaenia ljungiana, and Cochylis hybridella.

24th Aug '15 .. Dark Sword-grass and Maiden's Blush

Two more year ticks last night despite the apalling weather.
10 deg. C and raining, that's August for you, two days before it was 31 deg during the day, then down to 16 today,
Back to the moths ....
2091 - Agrotis ipsilon - Dark Sword-grass

2091 Agrotis ipsilon - Dark Sword-grass

2019 Agrotis ipsilon - Dark Sword-grass

 Another regular, but not in great numbers ... Maiden's Blush ...

1680 Cyclophora punctaria - Maiden's Blush

An update ... garden moths

Here are a few recent additions to the garden year list ...

Swallow Prominent

Least Yellow Underwing

Orange Sallow

Cream-bordered Green Pea

Tree-lichen Beauty

Six-striped Rustic

Epiblema foenella (brown form)

Latticed Heath

17th Aug 2015 ... New for VC30

This is the 9th species I have added to the county list in the past 5 years ...
Scythris limbella a Chenopodium feeder.
Thanks to David Manning for making a special journey to view and later confirm by gen. det.
Chuffed with this one ..
Photo; D.V. Manning
National status:

• pRDB 1 – species are likely to appear in the Red Data Book and be categorised as endangered;

Scythris limbella

BF 918 - Scythris limbella 17th July '15,  TL193444

11th Aug, Phoenix

The 2nd record of Phoenix turned up on the wall near the trap, it's size and the large wing bar stand out immediately.
I quickly potted it up before one of the numerous Large Yellow "Blunderwings" disturbed it ...

BF1754 - The Phoenix - Eulithis prunata

Quite a few 2nd generation moths are showing up, lots of the smaller Brimstone Moths, plus Vine's Rustic, Small Ranunculus amongst others but the traps are still heaving with the common brown moths.
Orange Swift appeared for the first time last night and the Toadflax Brocades have done well with record numbers this year so far.

BF15 - Triodia sylvina - Orange Swift

Migrant moths seem to also be doing well, Plutella xylostella, Silver Y, White-point (2nd last night) and Small Mottled Willow appearing in the Upper Caldecote traps, plus a pending possible Pearly Underwing , there's a mouthful !
The underwing ( shown below) doesn't show up as white like the similar and very common Turnip Moth,  these are almost see-through, and the heavy veins are unusual. The "hairstyle" is more like Turnip than the "mohican" style of Pearly but it is a little worn. One for the county recorders.

8th Aug ... Latest garden moths ...

The garden traps are heaving with rubbish at the moment.
Large Yellow, Lesser Yellow, Broad-bordered Yellow and Lesser B-b Yellow Underwings.
Shuttle-shaped Darts that you weigh instead of counting, Common Rustics too, Turnip Moths, and lately, Square-spot Rustics, Flounced Rustic with the odd Copper Underwing.
This is known as "Brown Stuff", and each morning you sift through it hoping for something different.
Fortunately, this often happens, one moth will stand out and it's usually a good one ... Tree-lichen Beauty for instance, Lunar-spotted Pinion and Twin-spotted Wainscot were three examples that made the morning check worthwhile ......
It has been correctly pointed out that the Pinion is Lesser-spotted, not Lunar-spotted. The pale round patch at mid forewing, with the small black dot in the centre is not present on Lunar and the paler colour clinches it.
So that completes the Cosmia set of four. Thanks Matt Burgess for pointing this out.

Tree-lichen Beauty

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Twin-spotted Wainscot

Full moon and Crescent. 29th July

After setting a moth trap in the Cherokee Forest, North Carolina for a week and finding the trap full of stunning moths, I haven't been too enthused of late.
Shuttle-shaped Darts and Common Rustics are an anti-climax.
But with a full blue moon blazing and the trap filling up with "brown stuff" a moth amongst the hoard of Comm Rustics looked a little different.
After checking and getting the green light from our county recorders I can add The Crescent to my garden list.

2368 The Crescent. 29th July 2015